


I Saw Mommy Kissing Supergirl

by StephIsInsanity



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Christmas fic, F/F, Mentions of all of the super friends as well as Alex and Lucy, Mentions of panic attacks and anxiety, This is mostly a story about Cat and Carter, and towards the end they realize how Kara fits into their lives, ignores some of the linear timeline, supercat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 18:30:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8811559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StephIsInsanity/pseuds/StephIsInsanity
Summary: Carter Grant had stopped believing in Santa Claus when he was eight years old.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This wouldn’t leave my brain so here it is. In this story, Cat never confronted Kara about being Supergirl, she just figured that Kara would trust her with the information eventually. Also I guess minor spoilers for the crossover? I mean as long as you know that the crossover meant that Supergirl went to Earth-1 then you’re good (also let’s just assume that it happened closer to christmas than thanksgiving)
> 
>  
> 
> (this was supposed to be a little fluff piece, I have no idea what happened.)

Carter Grant had stopped believing in Santa Claus when he was eight years old. It was the first christmas since his father had left and his mother was kind of a mess, he worried about her. So when he heard a crash from downstairs followed by a muffled curse word he waited a moment before he quietly crept down the stairs to see his mother holding an ice pack to the top of her head while continuing to arrange gifts under the tree. 

He watched quietly from around the corner as she put the last one out and sat on the couch, she grabbed the plate of cookies they had set out for Santa earlier that night and a glass of what he assumed was whiskey or some other alcohol. He watched as she downed half the liquid in the glass and ate two cookies and took a bite from a third. It took all of his willpower not to gasp, he was pretty sure he had never in his (albeit rather short) life, ever seen a cookie pass his mother's lips. 

Once she had finished her drink, she shifted and laid back on the couch, re-positioning the ice pack. After a few minutes he could tell that she had fallen asleep, he went upstairs to her room and grabbed the blanket off of her bed, he climbed onto the couch next to his mother and covered them both with the blanket. He was awake for most of the night, listening to his mother’s steady heartbeat only falling asleep right before the sun came up. 

______

When Carter was ten, he was told he had to spend christmas with his father, and it didn’t go over very well. His father couldn’t understand his sensitive nature and thought he just needed to come out of his shell and get over it and so, that’s how three hours after his mother had dropped him off, she was picking him back up from the condo his father had just outside the city. 

His father had needed to run to the office and left Carter home with his new girlfriend, who insisted that they get to know each other, despite Carter repeatedly asking his father not to leave him home he had refused. At first he had tried to distract himself with a book he had brought with him, but this woman would not stop trying to “get to know him”. She repeated his father’s earlier sentiments about how Carter just needed to leave his comfort zone and embrace something new. This is what finally resulted in Carter locking himself in the condo’s bathroom until his father returned 40 minutes later and after being unable to coax Carter out of the bathroom, he unwillingly called his ex-wife. 

To say Cat was furious when she arrived would be the understatement of the century. She pushed her way through the door ignoring all of her idiot ex-husband’s excuses and explanations as she went to stand directly outside the bathroom door. She took a deep breath and bottled all of her anger towards her ex-idiot inside because her beautiful boy needed her and she would not let him down. 

He had always been shy and he had never been comfortable around people he did not know. When he was younger it had been easier to dismiss as nervousness but she had recently been researching his reactions to situations and had made a few appointments for after the first of the year. She gently knocked on the door and quietly announced herself, after a moment she heard the lock click followed by some shuffling noises. She heard a very faint mumble of 'come in’ so she slowly turned the knob to open the door just wide enough to slip through. 

She found Carter sitting in the bathtub with his arms wrapped around his legs and his head down. She could barely discern that it was him in the shadows because the only light source in the room was a dim night light over the sink, there were no widows and he had the lights off. Cat toed off her heels and carefully stepped into the bathtub, sitting across from Carter and mimicking his stance with her arms around her legs. Suddenly she wished she had not worn jeans because it was kind of difficult to sit this way but she pushed that thought away and focused on her son. 

When Carter looked up to meet her gaze she could see in the dim lighting the look of fear etched into his features. She took a deep breath and tear fell down one cheek. She offered a hand to him, careful not to touch him first, he reached out and grasped her hand before launching himself into her arms. He was crying quietly and so was she. 

“Mom, can we go home? Please don't make me stay here.” 

Cat's heart broke at the sound of her son's voice sounding so broken and far away. 

“Yes, yes of course we can go home.” she said as she wrapped her arms around him just as tight as he wrapped his around her. 

He positioned his head right over her heart, the same way she had found him both the christmas before last when she had woken on the couch with Carter snuggled into her side, and the following year when he had crawled into her bed during the night. She sat like this for several minutes until she felt his breathing change and knew for sure he was asleep. 

She hastily wiped the tears from her face before she pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to her ex-husband. 

'Come here. Quietly. No lights.’ 

she heard the door click open not 30 seconds later. 

“I need you to help me get him to the car.” she whispered. 

she got a nod in response as he reached over and scooped Carter up in his arms, careful not to jostle him. She spent the ride home with her boy in her arms, his head over her heart. 

______

They spent both his 11th and 12th christmas’ the same way. For his eleventh christmas, his grandmother was in town and his father had gotten engaged to the woman from last year. Cat insisted that they stay somewhere Carter was comfortable but he knew that his mother hated her mother being in the penthouse apartment they lived in most of the year so he suggested the beach house they had in Midvale. 

Cat conceded that was a good idea and so on December 23rd they headed out of National City to the beach house. Carter was so nervous about the next day that he was practically vibrating out of his skin on the car ride there. He had begun seeing a therapist at the beginning of the year and for the most part the various exercises had been working for him. He calmed down once they arrived at the house because he knew no one else would be arriving until the following day. 

Cat had called ahead as soon as she had agreed to this plan last week and had the house decorated for christmas. Upon walking inside there was a large tree in the living room completely done up that immediately drew the eye of anyone entering the home. 

“Oh wow, Mom this is so pretty.” Carter was in awe of the tree, he searched for the plug and turned on the lights. Cat smiled as she watched her son’s eyes light up with the tree.

“Come on, let’s unpack and then maybe we can make some cocoa and watch a movie?” she offered to Carter. 

The boy eagerly agreed and carried his things up to his room. 

The following day went about as well as Cat could have hoped, Carter didn’t once have a breakdown and her mother was behaved for a change. Though she’s pretty sure that her mother’s behavior was loosely tied to the bottle of schnapps that had been at her side from the moment she walked in. Cat was placing presents under the tree for morning and she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, her life couldn’t possibly run this smoothly. 

“Don’t you think he’s getting a little old for Santa?” Her ex-husband said, sitting on the couch behind her and eating a cookie off the plate that had been set out for Santa before Carter had gone to bed. 

“Don’t you think you’re a little old to be dating a 22 year old?” she responded, venom on her tongue. 

“She’s 34 and that’s not the point.” he rebutted.

“No, Joseph. If it makes him happy I do not think he’s ‘getting a little old’ for Santa.” she used air quotes in mocking way towards him. Placing the last gift under the tree, she turned and placed her hands on her hips. 

“You gotta stop babying him Kitty, he’s never going to grow out of it if you don’t let him-” 

“If I don’t let him what?” Cat interrupted, fire in her eyes. “If i don’t let him panic? If I don’t let him know it's okay to do things his way? If I don’t let him lock himself in a bathroom for an hour? Or did you forget about last christmas?” 

“I can’t talk to you like this.” Her ex-husband waved a dismissive hand in her direction and walked out of the room, not even seeing Carter around the corner. Cat sat in front of the fireplace and put her head in her hands.

The boy tentatively stepped into the room. 

“Mom?” 

Cat looked up quickly, wiping at tears she hadn’t realized had fallen. 

“Carter, sweetie how much of that did you hear?” 

The boy stared at his feet. 

“I didn’t wake you did I?” she asked, standing and crossing over to him. 

He shook his head. 

“Maybe you should head back to bed?” she offered with her arm wrapped around his shoulders. 

“No.” he responded, then he shimmied out of her grasp. “Wait here.” he said running down the hall and disappearing into his room. 

He returned a moment later with the blanket from his bed and took his mother’s hand leading her over to the couch across from the fireplace, the fire was dwindling down but it was still giving off a fair amount of heat. He sat in the middle of the couch and patted the spot next to him, Cat sat down and he covered them both with the blanket. She wrapped her arms around him and he placed his head above her heart and closed his eyes. 

A few minutes went by and just as Cat was sure he was asleep, he spoke up.

“It’s okay if I’m too old for Santa.” He said in a small voice.

“Nonsense, you’re never too old for Santa. Everyone needs a little magic in their lives.” Cat told him. 

“Okay good because I really hope he brings me the new tablet I asked for.” he responded. 

“I’m sure he will sweetheart. Don’t you worry.” she pulled him against her even tighter.

She was woken several hours later by the sunlight pouring in the window, she looked down to see a mess of light brown curls sprawled across her lap. She ran a hand through his hair and wondered how she was so lucky to have a boy as special as Carter.

______

Carter planned to spend his thirteenth christmas as he had the previous two, the universe however, had other plans. The day before they were set to leave for Midvale a huge and unpredicted snow storm hit the east coast essentially trapping his grandmother in Metropolis for the holiday. It was no big deal, they could still head out to the beach house and continue what had now become a happily strange (and occasionally tense) holiday tradition with his parents . Just as his mother was putting him to bed that night her phone rang, apparently his father’s wife had gone into labor 3 weeks early, and they were on their way to the hospital right now. 

“Well sweetie, it looks like it's going to be just us this year, I have to stop by the office in the morning for a meeting that just could not be rescheduled and then we will hit the road.” She told him, smoothing down his mess of curls. 

He shrugged. 

“Though I have no idea what i’m going to do with the amount of food we have prepared, we went from feeding 5.5 people to just two.” she said, as she stood from where she was seated at the edge of his bed. 

“What if I invited someone to come with us? Y’know as long as they don’t have their own family christmas thing?” Carter said, eyes hopeful.

“You mean like a friend?” she asked, surprised, receiving a nod in response.

“Yeah, like a friend.. Hey can I go with you to CatCo in the morning?” he asked.

“Sure, it's going to be quite boring though. Also you’ll need to give me this friends contact information so that I can speak to their parents.” she said as she switched off the light to his room. 

“I’ll have it for you after your meeting tomorrow, 10 am sharp.” he informed her.  
“Good.” she smiled at him. 

“Night, mom.” he said as he rolled over. 

“Goodnight sweetheart.” 

The following morning, Carter was up and ready to go at exactly 7 am. Fifteen minutes before he needed to be, the advantages of living 4 blocks from CatCo meant that his mother had a commute of roughly 10 minutes, and that was with traffic. 

At 7:43 Cat looked up from her desk to see that Carter was still sitting in the chair directly next to Kara’s desk. He was on edge she could tell, he had said he had something he wanted to talk to the girl about and so she told him he could sit at her desk until she arrived. Her assistant wasn’t due to be in until 8 am, the same time Cat was originally going to be arriving, which means that young woman would arrive in approximately 2 minutes, always early making sure everything was in it's place before Cat arrived.

“Carter! Hey buddy, what’s up?” 

Cat heard her assistant’s voice before she saw her ponytail. She looked at her watch it was only 7:44, the line at Noonan’s must have been short with everyone heading out of town for the holiday. She watched as her son hugged Kara who couldn’t really hug him back, tray of coffee in one hand and a bag of pastries in the other. He backed up and began talking animatedly she watched he assistant’s sunny demeanor change to one of worry and nervousness and suddenly it clicked in her brain who Carter wanted to invite to christmas. 

“Keira!” 

“Coming Miss Grant!” 

Cat was quiet as Kara handed her the latte that was her’s and gave her the notes for the meeting she had at 8:30. Cat leaned her head to the side and gave Carter a look that told him he had been busted. 

“Now Carter, when you asked to invite a friend to christmas I assumed you meant a school friend. I’m sure Keira has plans already.” 

“Well I mean I do have plans with my foster mom and sister but not until christmas day and Eliza’s house, she’s my foster mom.” she paused, clarifying who Eliza was “her house is in Midvale, that's actually where I grew up. So I mean it's no trouble to go out there a little earlier-”

She cut her rambling short when she saw the look on Cat’s face. 

“I mean it's no trouble, as long as it's okay with you Miss Grant, I don’t want to overstep and I-” 

This time she was cut off by Carter. 

“Please Mom? _Kara_ -” he emphasized his correct pronunciation of her name, giving his mother a look “-is so cool and I really want you to play Settlers of Catan with her.” 

Cat pursed her lips and sat back in her chair, she sighed. Her one downfall in life was that she had an inability to say no to anything Carter wanted. He so infrequently asked for something that when he did she felt no other need than to make whatever he wanted happen. 

“Fine, yes _Keira_ can come.” she looked up at Kara, continuing to speak. 

“You will get me everything I’m going to need for this meeting, then you will go home to whatever sub-par neighborhood you live in and pack for 2 additional days in Midvale. You are to be in the lobby of this building by no later than 10 am sharp and we will have your things loaded into the car and be on our way.” 

“Yes Miss Grant.” she turned to collect all of the things Miss Grant would need for her meeting, flashing a smile at Carter on her way out. 

“Thanks mom.” she heard Carter say as the glass door closed behind her. 

~

They pulled up to the beach house a little after 6 pm. They had stopped for lunch around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and wandered around a nearby park to stretch their legs before continuing on their Journey. For dinner they stopped at a fairly decent establishment just outside of the city and Kara had learned after receiving a glare for the second time that day, that she should put her wallet in the very bottom of her suitcase. Because she’s pretty sure that if she tries to pay for her own food one more time, she won’t be the only person at the table with the ability to shoot lasers from her eyes.

“I told you earlier, you are Carter’s guest, you do not pay for yourself Keira.” Cat scolded her.

“Yes Miss Grant.” She mumbled putting her wallet back in her purse.

When they pulled up outside the house Kara was completely taken away, the entire house was lit up but not so that it was overbearing. 

“Oh this is breathtaking, It’s beautiful Miss Grant.” she said out loud without meaning to.

“I suppose if you’re to be spending christmas with us, you might as well call me Cat.” she heard from over her shoulder. 

Kara turned around to face her boss and clearly she had a look of panic on her face because Miss Grant rolled her eyes. 

“It’s not like it's a nuclear launch code, honestly Kara.” 

Cat either didn’t notice or chose to ignore the fact that Kara was even more taken aback upon the use of her real name than she was already.

“Come along now, we’ve got a tree to decorate.” she said, handing Kara the backpack that belonged to her and ushering her into the house with a gentle push.

The driver followed them inside with the remainder of their luggage, placing it by the door; Cat thanked the man and closed the door behind him.

“Oh for heaven’s sake Carter, hang up your coat!” She yelled into the dark house. 

“Sorry Mom!” was heard from the other end of the house, presumably the room with light pouring out of it, as Cat reached down and picked up her son’s coat from where he had unceremoniously dropped it on the floor with his bag. 

“Mom, the tree won’t light up.” Carter said coming back down the hall. 

“Oh! Eliza always has trouble with her lights, I might be able to help with that.” Kara offered, shrugging out of her coat and hanging it on the rack where Cat had hung Carter’s discarded jacket. 

“C’mon I’ll show you where it is!” Carter said, grabbing Kara by the hand and pulling her down the hall. Cat rolled her eyes and picked up the backpack that had fallen from her assistants arms as her son dragged her away. She put the bag on top of Kara’s suitcase and deposited her own things in her room on the way to see what her two troublemakers were getting into. 

She leaned against the door frame with her arms crossed over her chest and a playful smile on her lips. She could hear her assistant but couldn’t see her from behind the rather large tree in the corner of the room. 

“I think I found the disconnected plug” there was nothing to “think” about as she had used her x-ray vision to find the source of the problem. “But my sweater keeps getting stuck on the branches. Hold on.” she said, more to herself than the rooms other occupants. 

She stepped out from behind the tree as she reached the last button on one of those horrible cardigans Cat hated so much, she shrugged out of it laying it over the arm of a chair, leaving her in just a well fitting t-shirt, before quickly disappearing behind the tree again. Cat almost gasped at the sight of her assistant’s arms and had suddenly developed a new found hatred for those atrocious cardigans.

“Ah-ha! Yes! I think I got it, try it now Carter.” She called out.

Cat regained her composure as she watched her son plug in the tree, it lit up from floor to ceiling. 

“Awesome! Thanks Kara!” He said as her assistant reemerged from behind the tree. Kara held out her hand for a high five that Carter eagerly reciprocated. Cat knew she was staring, and she knew that Kara knew she was staring, she could tell by the way the girl wouldn’t make eye contact with her. But Cat also knew that if it was bothering the younger woman she could have at anytime put her sweater back on, claiming that she was chilly or something of the like.

“Yes, well now that we’ve solved that issue, perhaps we could remove our belongings from the hallway?” Cat offered up. 

“Will you get the decorations from the closet while we put our stuff away? I can show Kara which room is hers.” the boy offered. 

“Sure sweetheart.” She responded, crossing the room and pretending not to notice as Kara reached for her cardigan on the chair and hesitated just for a moment before picking it up. 

“It’s pretty warm in here.” she said to no one in particular as she followed Carter out of the room. 

Cat smirked to herself as she slid the boxes of garland and ornaments out of the closet.

An hour later and the tree was almost fully decorated. Cat was replacing some missing hooks on ornaments, occasionally glancing over at her assistant, who had returned to the room in a tank top and leggings, acknowledging Cat’s quiet intake of breath with a quick eyebrow raise and smirk as Carter came back into the room. Cat was now very blatantly watching as Kara was currently laying on her stomach on the floor under the tree trying to recover a runaway ornament. A sudden buzzing noise caught her attention, she looked over to see a bright pink phone case on the corner of the table. 

“Keira, I believe you’re getting a phone call.” she said, using the wrong pronunciation of her name to purposely create some distance, as she picked up the phone before it vibrated itself off the table. “From ‘My Super Lame Cousin’ apparently.” she said, rolling her eyes as she read the display, _millennials._

Kara was at her side at an almost inhuman speed, Cat offered her the phone. 

“Clark hey is everything alright?” she said into the phone, worry etching its way across her face.  
“No, you can’t ‘just call to say hi’ because that would insinuate that you call often enough for it be normal.” she said. 

Cat watched as she sat down on the same chair she had placed her sweater on earlier, and let out a sigh as she listened to the person on the other end of the line.

“Well I’m spending tonight and tomorrow with a friend and her son, and then Christmas with Alex and Eliza like usual, why? Aren’t you stuck in Metropolis what with the snow storm and everything?” a pause. “Clark Joseph Kent you have been in town for 2 days already and didn’t come to see me? I’m not sure if I’m more offended that you didn’t tell me, or more impressed that our families managed to keep it a secret.” she laughed.

Cat’s eyes widened as she heard Kara say her cousin’s name out loud and Carter turned to his mother recognizing the name from rants his mother had gone on about her time at The Daily Planet. 

“Wait, wait, wait you know that James and Lucy are going to be there right? I Invited them and my friend Winn over since he spent thanksgiving with us.” another pause. “No that’s fine I just know that she and Lucy don’t get along as well as Lois would like the world to believe.” 

Cat wished she could hear what was being said on the other end of the line.

“Okay, well I’ll see you Saturday! Love you too. Bye” she hung up the phone and looked over at Cat, who was staring at her in disbelief.

“I- we- give me one minute and then we can talk about that.” she said, punching numbers into her phone.

She stood and paced as the phone rang in her ear.

“Ugh, voicemail.” She paused as the recording said it's piece. “Hey James, it’s me. Just wanted to give you heads up in case you weren’t aware, Lois and Clark are coming to Christmas at Eliza’s. I just don’t want Lucy to be blindsided in case she doesn’t know. I’m already out in Midvale with Cat and Carter right now but I’ll be at Eliza’s at 11 am on Saturday, see you then, bye.”

She ended the call and placed her phone on top of the mantle. 

“Okay so I may have forgotten to mention that Clark Kent is my cousin, but in my defense you also never asked..” Kara said with her hands up. 

Cat narrowed her eyes, before leaning back into the couch. Kara visibly relaxed when Cat did and reached down to the table for the hot cocoa Carter had made for her.

“I suppose you’re right.” Cat paused, thinking for a moment about what to say next. 

“Though how was I supposed to know that my faithful assistant was related to the annoyingly handsome reporter currently dating my ex-girlfriend, I mean, what are the odds?” She asked casually, as she resumed her previous position, fixing the ornaments with missing hooks. 

Kara nearly choked on her hot cocoa, while Cat sat there fixing ornaments like they were talking about the weather and not the fact that Cat just said she had previously dated Lois Lane. 

“I’d- uh- I’d say the odds are pretty slim Miss Grant.” she responded, clearing her throat from her near choking experience. 

Cat gave her a look. 

“Sorry, Cat. It's a habit, I’m working on it.” Kara grinned sheepishly. 

The rest of the night went by in a blur and Cat couldn’t pinpoint any part of it that was her favourite. When she woke up in the middle of the night with nothing but the TV screen lighting up the room, she glanced to her side and couldn’t help but smile. 

Carter had obviously been the last one of them to fall asleep as the blanket covering them had not been there before and it was the one from his bed. As she carefully shifted herself to grab the remote and turn off the horrible glare of the television, she couldn’t believe how easy and comfortable it was to have Kara around. She glanced at her assistant, her glasses were askew on her face and her head was resting sideways against the back of the couch, Carter had his arms wrapped around her waist using a portion of the blanket as a pillow as he slept in her lap. Cat rolled her eyes knowing she was getting too old to keep sleeping on the couch, but she wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to see the flustered look on her assistant's face when she woke up to find two sleeping Grant’s lying on her lap come the morning. So she lifted the blanket and tucked her small frame into the space behind Carter, securing him to her with her arm. He shifted in his sleep and placed his head on her chest, just above her heart. She let out a soft sigh and placed a kiss on the top of his head, this was becoming her favourite christmas tradition.

_______

Kara plopped down on her sofa, exhausted. Traveling between worlds and fighting an army of rogue aliens would do that to a person she supposed. She headed to her bathroom stripping off the suit as she went and climbed tiredly into the shower. She could hear the incessant buzzing of her phone from the other room where she’d plugged it in, she was receiving every missed notification, text, and phone call from the last week she’d been on another planet. Tomorrow was Christmas and she’d be flying out to Eliza’s in the morning so she decided rest was more important than checking phone. She shut off the water and used super speed to dry herself off with a spin, pulling on an over-sized t-shirt and some boyshorts she went back into her living room to send Alex a text letting her know she was back. As she picked up her phone, which had finally stopped buzzing thank Rao, she nearly dropped it again. 

She had 4 missed calls and 3 voicemail's from Cat Grant. She hadn’t heard from Cat since she left in the spring following the myriad incident. She’d sent a few texts and received no response, she knew that Cat was in Europe most of the summer, she had set up an alert for when Cat was mentioned in the media, but for the last few months it had been incredibly quiet. They were all from the past two days, nothing from today and it was nearing dinner time on Christmas Eve. 

She called her voicemail and held her breath as the first message started, it was Carter. 

“Hey Kara! I know it's last minute but I was wondering if you wanted to come to the beach house for Christmas again this year? I hope you do, last year was so much fun. Okay call me back at my mom’s number if you wanna go with us. Bye, Kara!” 

Kara leaned back against the couch, a sick feeling forming in her stomach as she pressed play on the second message.

“Kara, it’s Carter Grant.” came the boy’s voice through the phone “mom says I shouldn’t call again but maybe you just missed the first one, anyway we’re leaving from the penthouse at 10 am sharp tomorrow morning if you want to go. Bye.” 

Kara was almost in tears, she knew that she had upset Carter by the tone of his voice in that message. She took a deep breath and pressed play on the last message, it was from 4 hours ago. This time it wasn’t Carter’s voice on the other end.

“Keira. Sorry, Kara.” there was a pause in which she could hear her former boss take a deep breath. “I know that I said I would keep in touch when I left seven months ago, and I also know that you’ve been sending me texts and emails that I have ignored. I know that I probably deserve being ignored like this but please, don’t take it out on Carter he doesn’t take to people easily and he really trusts you. Please, Kara if you decide to listen to this please call him, I’m not asking you to come down here when you visit your family or anything, I know that I messed up but just give him a call. We missed you, _I_ missed you. Goodbye Kara.” 

Kara was in her suit and in the sky before she could even stop to think about the decision. She sent Alex a quick text telling her she was back from Earth-1 and would see her at Eliza’s tomorrow morning before tucking her phone into her suit. 

She landed on the patio outside double french doors, which she knew would be unlocked. She and Cat had never formally discussed the fact that she was Supergirl but she knew the older woman, currently asleep on the couch inside the doors, had figured her out ages ago. Sure enough as she tried the handle it opened easily under her touch swinging inside, she stepped into the house quickly not wanting the cold air to get into the already drafty beach house. 

It was late, almost midnight and Kara knew that there were several other people in the house, she counted two adult heat signatures and an infant in one room, another down the hall and she could hear Carter's heartbeat, it wasn't slow and rhythmic like that of a sleeping human indicating he was still awake. She decided she'd talk to him first as she put down the small bag of clothes she brought on the floor near the door. Her plans quickly changed as she walked past Cat and a hand reached out and grabbed her arm. 

“You came.” Cat said, sleep still in her voice. 

Kara looked down at her former boss, waiting while she sat up and woke up a little more. 

“Of course I came, I never would have ignored Carter no matter how angry I was with you.” she responded. 

“Then how come you didn't return his calls?” 

“I- I just got them, I've been, away.. for the last week.” 

“Away somewhere with no cell service for an entire week?” Cat asked, disbelieving. 

“Oh no, I had cell service just not any that reached this version of Earth.” 

“what do you mean “this version” of Earth?” Cat asked slowly. 

“Do you remember my friend Barry?” she asked

“The Flash, I believe he called himself, yes.” 

“Well, the reason you never heard from The Flash again after he went home, was because he was from a different Earth.” she held up a hand asking Cat to wait while she explained. “The way Cisco and Barry explained it to me is that there are infinite timelines and each variation of the timeline gets it's own version of Earth in it's own universe, and Barry learned how to create what they call “breaches” in the fabric of space time essentially allowing him, and now me, to travel between realities.” 

She took a deep breath. 

“So it's not that I didn't want to return Carter's calls it's that, Carter, here on Earth-38, was trying to reach me while I was fighting an alien army on Earth-1. Does that make sense?” she asked, sitting on the couch beside Cat. 

“That makes almost no sense to me at all” Cat said laughing quietly, she reached out a hand and placed it on top of Kara's. 

“But that doesn't matter, what matters is that you came.” she said quietly, squeezing Kara's hand. 

Kara turned her hand palm up and laced her fingers with Cat's loosely. Cat looked up at her in surprise, but Kara didn't see that look on her face as she was too busy studying their hands, focused on how they fit together. 

“You know, I hope that what you said on that message was true and not just an attempt get me over here, because I missed you too. Rao, Cat I missed you more than I thought it was possible to miss a person.” she looked up at Cat, and saw tears forming in her eyes. 

She reached her free hand up and wiped at the tears just as they fell. 

“I missed every form of you Kara, I missed you as Kara “The Perfect Assistant”, and as Kara “The Overprotective Friend”. I missed you as Kara “My Own Personal Guardian Angel”. Although most of all, I think that I missed my talks with Supergirl, because I felt like when you were her you got to be the truest form of yourself, and you truly inspired me.” she said with a small laugh. 

Kara wiped away a few more stray tears from Cat's face with her thumb before wiping her own tears away as well. 

“Ironically it was those inspiring talks with Supergirl that eventually resulted in my leave of absence so I'm not sure if that was more of blessing or curse really.” she said quietly. 

“Well I suppose that depends, do you feel like you’ve accomplished something? Or do you still feel stuck like you did before you left in the Spring?” Kara questioned, she un-linked their fingers as she stood up from the couch.

She walked over to the tree, it was in the same place as the previous year and just as impressive. She reached behind it for the plug, lighting it up while listening to Cat.

“Well I'm coming back on the first of the year, but while I was in Europe I established a Paris branch of CatCo and I'll be spending one week of every month out there to change it up, so to speak. I think it's going to help with the feeling of being stuck but also allow Carter the stability he needs to thrive. And- ”

she paused for a moment looking over at Kara, who was admiring the tree. She wondered if the superhero had noticed the missing tree topper yet.

“I was thinking” she continued “that perhaps, on that week that I’m away each month, maybe you could stay with Carter? If it's not too much trouble, after all we wouldn't want Supergirl to be stuck babysitting when she should be saving the world. Though he is 14 now and mostly just needs guidance. If you had to leave for a few hours he could get by on his own.” 

“You’d really trust me with him for a whole week?” Kara asked as she turned back to Cat, remembering her one and only time watching Carter.

“I know that after the train incident it seemed like I was never going to forgive you, but you also have to remember that Supergirl picked saving the train over saving thousands of people at the airport because Carter was on that train. You showed me then that I could trust you with my life and my son’s life, but I obviously couldn’t tell you that because I wasn’t supposed to know you were Supergirl." Cat said, waving a hand in the air as she stood up, as if she were dismissing the whole subject as a silly mistake. 

“I know it's very un-superhero like of me to say this, but I will always put your life, Carter’s life, and the lives of everyone else important to me in front of strangers I’ve never met. It might not be the right thing to do but it will always be what I do.” She said, with a fiercely protective glint to her eye. 

“So does that mean that when I come back to CatCo you will agree to this arrangement with Carter?” Cat asked, coming to stand next to her. “I know he would be absolutely thrilled by-” 

Her sentence was cut short as Kara reached out and pulled her into a kiss, it took her a moment to realize what was happening, what with Kara’s super speed and all, but after a moment she relaxed into the kiss. She slid her arms up around Kara’s neck, tangling her fingers in the long blonde hair of her favourite superhero. Kara’s hands settled on Cat’s hips pulling her impossibly closer, Cat ran her tongue along Kara’s lower lip looking for permission to deepen the kiss. Kara eagerly allowed Cat to deepen the kiss, allowing her to start achieving her new goal which was to explore every inch of Cat with her tongue, a goal she hadn’t realized she had until 30 seconds ago. Eventually Cat had to pull away to breathe, and Kara leaned their foreheads together. 

“So is that a yes?” Cat asked, after catching her breath.

Kara laughed.

“Well it’s not a no.” She responded, pulling Cat’s mouth back to hers for another kiss.

“Hey Cat.” she said quietly, as they separated again.

“Yes, darling?” 

“How come the star isn’t on the top of the tree?” she said motioning her head towards the tree.

“I wanted to leave it for you.” a voice said from behind them. 

The two women separated from each others embrace, startled by the interruption, turning toward the door. 

“Dad said I shouldn’t bother because if you hadn’t responded you weren’t going to, but I knew you would show up, I just knew it.” Carter said from the doorway, wrapped in his blanket.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t get back to you Buddy, I only got your messages an hour ago otherwise I would have called you as soon as I got them, you know that right?” Kara said, as she walked towards the boy. 

“I know. That’s why I made sure we left the star for you, you said it was what your foster mom always saved for you and it was her way of welcoming you to the family so I wanted you to know you were welcome to our family too.” He said, mostly looking at the ground out of nervousness. 

“Oh, Carter.” Kara felt herself tearing up again and blinked them away “Can I give you a hug? Is that alright?” 

The boy nodded and Kara wrapped her arms around his shoulders, he stiffened up for just a second before he wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed as tight as he could. Cat leaned against the fireplace and watched with a smile on her face as the two most important people in her life reconnected. She also noticed Kara was still in her suit and something would have to be done about that if she was going to stay the night, not that she was expecting her to stay but she was hoping that she would. 

Once the two separated Cat brought up the subject of the costume, and Kara who had forgotten she was wearing it, panicked for just a second before remembering she could trust these people. She walked over to the bag she had left by the door and was changed in a matter of seconds. To Cat and Carter it looked as if she had basically spun in a circle and had on another outfit. 

“Okay now you’re just showing off” and “that was so cool” were said simultaneously in her direction, she laughed. 

Carter opened the closet door and grabbed the tree topper off of the box it was sitting on top of, he handed it to Kara. 

She grinned and looked at the Grant’s. 

“Do you really want to see me show off?” she asked, with a cheeky grin.

She received an eager head nod from a Carter and an eye roll and dismissive hand wave from Cat, the smile on the latter’s face giving away her true feelings.

Kara bent her knees and pushed up slightly floating towards the ceiling with the star in her hands. Cat watched as Supergirl- no, as Kara floated towards the ceiling with a messy bun on top of her head, glasses on her face, clad in a baggy grey t-shirt that went halfway down her thighs and simple pair of maroon leggings. She looked nothing like the superhero she was, when she was dressed in everyday clothes and suddenly Cat understood how Kara pulled off her secret identity. 

As she landed on the ground softly, she grinned at Carter who was just staring at her. 

“Mom, can Kara take me flying?” he asked excitedly.

“No, absolutely not.” Cat immediately responded.

The boy pouted for about .02 seconds before he rebounded. 

“Can we watch a movie then?” he asked.

“It’s past midnight Carter, I don’t know.” 

“Please mom, Kara just got here and I know she has to leave in the morning to go to her family.” 

Cat sighed, Carter had a point, they had less than 12 hours left with Kara so they should make the most of them. 

“Fine put in a movie, I’ll go make some popcorn.” 

“Yes! Thanks mom!” he said, as he grabbed Kara’s hand and pulled her over to the movie shelf to pick something to watch. 

When Cat returned to the living room Kara was sitting with her legs up on the couch and Carter nestled into her side between her and the couch cushions, the opening credits to whatever movie they had picked were just beginning. She walked over to them, and tapped at Kara’s knee gesturing for her to make room, she lowered one leg bending it at the knee so her foot was now on the floor.

"Can I ask you something I've always wondered?" Cat asked Kara as she situated herself between the younger woman’s legs, leaning back into Kara’s chest. 

"Of course." The girl responded.

"Why the glasses? Do they serve a purpose? Or do you and your cousin just think that glasses are a good disguise?" she asked.

Kara laughed. 

"They dampen our senses, they're lined with lead so they allow us to have regular vision and they also help with making our hearing more selective. When my glasses are on I can't use my x-ray vision, my heat vision, or see further than the average human. My hearing is still far superior but they allow me to focus on a voice or a heartbeat instead of being bombarded with everything all at once."

"So without your glasses you basically have a sensory overload?" Carter asked.

"Yes, I believe that's what Jeremiah compared it to the first time he gave me the glasses." she responded.

The two seemed content with her answer and so Kara brought her right arm around Cat and tangled their fingers together resting them on her stomach. Carter reached over and grabbed his blanket from the end of the couch pulling it over the three of them and resting his head on Cat’s chest. The popcorn bowl sat abandoned on the floor and the last thing Cat thought of as she succumbed to sleep was the look that would be on her mother’s face when she found the three of them on the couch come morning. 


End file.
